The US presidential envoy will reportedly skip the assembly with Ukrainian officers in London
US President Donald Trump’s particular envoy, Steve Witkoff, is heading to Russia for an additional assembly with President Vladimir Putin later this week, the White Home has confirmed.
Witkoff has held a number of rounds of talks with senior Russian officers, together with at the least three conferences with Putin, and is seen as one of many architects of the rapprochement between Moscow and Washington throughout Trump’s second presidency. Russian presidential adviser Yury Ushakov confirmed on Tuesday that experiences of Witkoff’s upcoming go to have been correct.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt advised journalists later within the day that each Trump and Witkoff “needed all people to know that the negotiations proceed.”
“We really feel, once more, we’re hopefully shifting in the correct course, and the particular envoy Steve Witkoff shall be heading to Russia once more later this week to proceed talks with Vladimir Putin,” Leavitt mentioned.
The White Home didn’t announce Witkoff’s actual journey plans after the Monetary Occasions reported that he would skip a gathering with European and Ukrainian officers to go to Moscow as an alternative.
Washington is anticipated to current its peace framework in London on Wednesday, following a sequence of high-level conferences in Paris final week, the place Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held discussions with French, British, German, and Ukrainian officers.
Rubio, nevertheless, is not going to attend the most recent spherical of talks attributable to his “busy” schedule, in response to spokesperson Tammy Bruce. As an alternative, Washington shall be represented by Common Keith Kellogg, one other of Trump’s envoys tasked with direct negotiations with Kiev.
The Washington Put up reported on Tuesday that the US proposals may embrace formally recognizing Crimea as Russian territory and probably lifting sanctions on Moscow. In the meantime, the Monetary Occasions claimed that Russia is ready to halt hostilities alongside the present entrance line.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, nevertheless, warned that “a variety of fakes are being printed now, together with by revered publications,” and urged the general public to depend on official sources concerning developments in US–Russian talks on the Ukraine battle.
Russia has repeatedly acknowledged that any peace deal should tackle the “root causes” of the battle, together with NATO’s eastward growth and Kiev’s aspirations to affix the US-led bloc. Moscow has additionally demanded that Kiev acknowledge not solely Crimea, but additionally the Donetsk and Lugansk Folks’s Republics, together with the Kherson and Zaporozhye areas, as a part of Russia.
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